words to nourish & challenge this hungry pilgrim

I am delighted to have a copy of Laura Alary’s book Make Room: A child’s guide to Lent and Easter for a giveaway, courtesy of Paraclete Press. [Update: This giveaway now is closed.] Last February I borrowed Make Room from a friend, and I posted a review on this blog. For convenience, I have copied that review (with minor changes) in this post.

If your family observes Lent, you will be very glad to see this book, which has beautiful, clear writing and gorgeous illustrations from Ann Boyajian. An excellent addition to a home library or church classroom, Make Room will have children feeling enthusiasm for this very special church season.

With language that is both practical and poetic, Alary’s book satisfies the need families have for literature that inspires excitement about faith. The language is simple, leaving space for parents to expand as a child questions and grows. Yet the writing communicates its messages clearly, providing words for experiences that often are hard to articulate.

Why do we observe Lent? What is the purpose of this season? In Alary’s words,

“During Lent we make time to be with God.

Every day we talk with God in different ways.

Sometimes we pray with words.

Sometimes we sing or listen to music.

Sometimes we get out paints and crayons and create many-colored prayers.

Colors are like a different language we can all speak

Even when we have no words.

God understands.”

I highly recommend Make Room for the young people in your life. Whatever books you choose for your family, may this season bring blessings of peace and prayers into your home.

[Update: the giveaway described below closed on 2/24/17.]

How can you win a copy? Click on the rafflecopter giveaway below. You will be asked to comment on this post sharing something that you plan to do during Lent this year. Entries will be accepted until February 24.a Rafflecopter giveaway

One winner will be selected via Rafflecopter and notified by email. The book will be sent from the publisher, so in order to receive your prize you will need to provide an address. Addresses will be used one time only, for mailing of prize, and never shared or used for solicitations.

Disclaimer: The book is provided by Paraclete Press in exchange for my offering this review and giveaway. I have received no fee.

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, which falls on March 1 this year. Do you have special intentions for prayer time during Lent? Will you make an extra effort to serve others? Will you engage in corporate practices, such as attending religious services?

Before Ash Wednesday arrives, I highly recommend finding a copy of City of God: Faith in the Streets by Sara Miles. Author Sara Miles is the director of the food pantry and director of ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. With this book Sara Miles takes us through her reflections on the meanings of Ash Wednesday, the richness of community, the call to share blessings and sorrows. She reminds us that the call to love one another spills out into the streets, into the shop on the corner, into hospital hallways. We are called on this day to face our mortality together, and to show mercy to one another.

For the church Ash Wednesday offers a particular opportunity to practice repentance. As Sara Miles writes, “Repentance requires paying attention to others, and learning to love, even a little bit, what God loves so much: the whole screwed-up world, this holy city, the people God created to be his own.” I reviewed this excellent book here on my blog, and I invite you to please check out the review.

Your comments about favorite Lenten practices are welcome. Peace be upon you as you walk your path.

I am very excited to be a part of Multicultural Children’s Book Day (1/27/17) this year. It is a privilege to be part of this important effort to lift up diverse children’s books. Representation in literature matters. All of our children benefit from seeing themselves reflected in the pages of their books. I encourage you to follow Multicultural Children’s Book Day online or on twitter, visit the pages of the bloggers who will be linking today, read the rich booklists that will be offered, and enter for a chance to win one of many book giveaways.

I have been invited to review Dragons Are Real, written by Valarie Budayr, a lovely picture book that brings dragons out of fairy tales into the ordinary lives of children. The children depicted in the story reflect the ethnic diversity of our world. Colorfully illustrated by Michael Welply, this book is full of dragons who appear friendly, intelligent, and full of fun. They enjoy reading, dancing, and swimming. Children will find the warm pictures inviting and full of humorous detail, reminiscent of Mark Teague and Jane Yolen’s dinosaur series. An activity guide is available to help teachers and families explore the story in creative ways.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is its fourth year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. “Our mission is to raise awareness on the ongoing need to include kid’s books that celebrate diversity in home and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators.

Budayr and Wenjen write about the importance of highlighting multicultural children’s books. “Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of color, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day holiday, the MCBD Team are on a mission to change all of that. This event has also proven to be an excellent way to compile a list of diverse children’s book titles and reviews for parents, grandparents, educators and librarians to use all year long.”

Current Sponsors: For the MCBD 2017 event, we have been very blessed to already have some amazing Sponsors in place. Platinum Sponsors include Scholastic, Barefoot Books and Broccoli. We are we are beyond thrilled to have all 3 sponsor’s support. Other Medallion Level Sponsors include heavy-hitters like Author Carole P. Roman, Audrey Press, Candlewick , KidLitTV, Capstone Young Readers, Author Gayle Swift, Wisdom Tales Press, Lee& Low Books, The Pack-n-Go Girls, Live Oak Media, Author Charlotte Riggle and Chronicle Books.

We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also work tirelessly to spread the word of this event.”

With social obligations, consumer pressures, and family celebrations, Advent often becomes a season of busyness rather than a holy season of contemplation. Many of us could use help to reorient our minds and hearts to respond to this season in a thoughtful way.

To my delight, Paraclete Press has produced a beautiful Advent Coloring Calendar, a prayerful way to settle the mind and relax during this special season. The designs are hand-drawn by monastics from the Community of Jesus, an ecumenical community in the Benedictine tradition. Each is reminiscent of the geometric patterns in stained glass, and the facing page includes a brief verse, inspiring quote, or excerpt from a seasonal song. The website of Paraclete Press includes sample images to view before purchase.

Bringing prayerful music into your home can contribute to finding the joy in daily life. As a counter to the Santa Claus-filled songs in the hectic shopping districts, you might choose to listen to Advent carols from Gloriae Dei Cantores, or Gregorian chants sung by the Gloriae Dei Cantores Schola. The uplifting recording Keeping Christmas celebrates the traditional Service of Readings and Carols, and includes a 28-page insert with song lyrics and scripture citations. From the comfort of home you can be transported to the Church of the Transfiguration, amidst a welcoming Benedictine community, where Gloriae Dei Cantores are accompanied by the Extol Handbell Choir and Elements Theatre Company.

The Advent Color and Sound set would make a welcome gift for a loved one, or a personal treasure to enhance this holy season of expectant waiting. Through art and music we can find a path toward slowing down and noticing the beauty in the world around us. May you have a blessed Advent!

Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher. No fee was received for this review.

Advent approaches: the season of expectant waiting, the season of heartfelt longing, the season of seeking for light in dark places. My practice in this season is a willful turning away from consumerism and reaching inward, even while I turn toward loved ones in celebrations. I want to reconnect with a sense that the hope and light we await has already come into our midst. A welcome companion this season is the beautiful book All Creation Waits: The Advent mystery of new beginnings (Paraclete Press). While the reader journeys through winter with nature’s wild creatures, encouragement abounds. For each animal knows inwardly that each winter births a new beginning.

In this lovely book, the daily meditations of Gayle Boss are accompanied by original woodcuts from artist David G. Klein. Readers will find refreshment and a renewed sense of wonder. Describing the reasons for establishing the liturgical season of Advent, Gayle Boss writes about the sense of primal fear that accompanies the increasing darkness of winter in the northern hemisphere. The church fathers advised fasting, almsgiving, and prayer–very different from our modern shopping extravaganzas. The spirit of quiet, however, can attune us to nature’s rhythm, bringing a sense of calm and peace.

As a lover of the natural world, Gayle Boss developed an admiration for the varied responses to the onset of winter. She writes, “The practice of Advent has always been about helping us grasp the mystery of a new beginning out of what looks like death. Other-than-human creatures–sprung, like us, from the Source of Life–manifest this mystery without question or doubt.” Connecting with the mystery will renew our hope.

The author resides in Michigan, and the animals featured are those of the northern woodlands, with a number commonly appearing in urban areas. They are diverse in size and habit, including deer, skunk, chipmunk, frog, and honey bee. One of my favorites is the humble chickadee, whose existence requires a tremendous amount of food to generate enough warmth. She compares the birds to a flock of St. Francises: “Like the saint wed to Lady Poverty, every winter day the question of their existence is open: Will there be enough of what they need to take them through the dark night, into tomorrow? Beyond reason, like the saint, they act as if the question is truly an opening, a freedom, a joy.” The woodcuts are gorgeous, bringing quiet life to each animal.

Truly we can learn much from watching wildlife and attuning to the wholeness of creation. Readers will benefit from the thoughtful, humble, and loving meditations of Gayle Boss, and animal lover would treasure this volume for Advents to come.

May this Advent season deepen your sense of wonder, your hopefulness for our world, and your love for all God’s creation. Peace be upon you.

Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher. No fee was received for this review.

As Ash Wednesday approaches (it will fall on February 10th this year), I am re-reading City of God: Faith in the Streets by Sara Miles, and I expect this will become a pre-Lent tradition for me. Somehow, Sara Miles wrote the words that were on my heart and helped me to better understand why I love Ash Wednesday so very much. Even in years when I had decided adamantly that I was done with church, I felt drawn to attend Ash Wednesday services. In the past few years, when church has become important to me, the litany of confession has brought me happy tears. Why? What happens in this observance?

Ash Wednesday is about repentance. Not about guilt, or about saying sorry, but about changing. “Repentance requires paying attention to others, and learning to love, even a little bit, what God loves so much: the whole screwed-up world, this holy city, the people God created to be his own.” It is about changing in a way that brings us closer to other human beings, and closer to God, and leaving behind—fasting from—that which separates us from others and from God. This kind of change affirms that life is short and the time to love is now. This, for me, is powerful and energizing.

We spend a lot of time and effort trying to get things figured out (or, at least, trying to appear that we have everything figured out). And then on Ash Wednesday there is this slap of truth: ashes to ashes. Some people might think receiving ashes, hearing “you are dust and to dust you shall return” is a morbid ritual. Yet my experience has been that it is absolutely liberating. We are mortal. Somehow the ceremonial acknowledgement of this reality is refreshing. Where I live, in the U.S., so much of the culture is focused on a false sense of immortality: buy this and everything will be fine; you will be happy and you’ll live forever! (Not in those exact words, perhaps, but that really is the gist of all marketing.)

And it’s not true. Our time is limited and precious and, too often, we squander it. Ash Wednesday is a precious gift of reminder. In the words of Will Hocker, friend of Sara Miles and chaplain at San Francisco General Hospital, Ash Wednesday is a chance “to bow down in public and say, I’m not in charge; I’m not going to live forever.” We are not in charge of life and death, and that is ok. The truth can be scary, but the truth also can be a blessing. It can be freeing to lay down the burden of impossible control.

Throughout City of God, as Sara Miles walks her neighborhood and shares ashes, readers can see the importance of community, of gathering, of collective acts that demonstrate we all are sharing this journey. We must support one another with any small mercy we can offer.

Last year I posted a review of City of God, which highlights some other elements of this energizing, reflective book.

Disclaimer: This review is freely given, based on my own copy of the book. No fee was received.

With language that is both practical and poetic, Alary’s book satisfies the need families have for literature that inspires excitement about faith. The language is simple, leaving space for parents to expand as a child questions and grows. Yet the writing communicates its messages clearly, providing words for experiences that often are hard to articulate.

Why do we observe Lent? What is the purpose of this season? In Alary’s words,

“During Lent we make time to be with God.

Every day we talk with God in different ways.

Sometimes we pray with words.

Sometimes we sing or listen to music.

Sometimes we get out paints and crayons and create many-colored prayers.

Colors are like a different language we can all speak

Even when we have no words.

God understands.”

I highly recommend Make Room for the young people in your life. Whatever books you choose for your family, may this season bring blessings of peace and prayers into your home.

Disclaimer: This review is freely give, based on a loaned copy of the book. No fee was received.